Saturday, November 29, 2008

Irrelevance (#9)

Portraits As Living DeadsA few weeks ago, I ran across a blog run by a Swiss artist named Frederik Peeters called Portraits As Living Deads. It basically zombifies famous dead people, showing clues as to how they died on their zombie bodies. Some of the best ones are as follows: Writer Ernest Hemingway (killed himself with a shotgun)Rapper Notorious B.I.G. (shot in the chest a number of times)Former President John F. Kennedy (shot in the head)Queen singer Freddie Mercury (complications from AIDS)Peeter's blog is located here. He usually updates once every day, or every other day.

The Batman that never wasControversial director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Pi) was originally going to direct a hyper-realistic Batman movie before Batman Begins came out a few years ago. His premise is as follows:

Aronofsky wasn’t interested in making anything that resembled a Batman film that had come before. He also wasn’t interested in hewing close to Miller’s original comics. This film saw Bruce Wayne wandering the streets after the murder of his parents; he’s taken in by an auto mechanic named Big Al (Aronofsky’s version of Alfred). Bruce grows up a borderline psychotic who begins taking violent vengeance on street thugs. He turns an abandoned subway station below Big Al’s auto shop into his version of the Batcave. He puts a bus engine in a black Lincoln Continental as his version of the Batmobile. Over the course of the story he assembles the elements of the costume and persona of Batman (or The Bat-Man, as he’s called).This Batman is the reality of what a guy in a costume beating up criminals would be like - insane, overdramatic, barely likable.

This is what dreams are made of. The best comics are always the ones that show an alternate reality, or a different telling of a story, so why couldn't that be just as great on the big screen? Hopefully Aronofsky hasn't given up yet. I'd love to see this made.Here is a list of more movies that were never made, including a Star Trek IV starring Eddie Murphy.